Rise with Clarity Podcast

How many of you are currently providing some form of care for your aging parents while also serving in your faculty position? And how many of you are also raising your own children at the same time? How are you holding up right now? In this 34th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I share a little bit about my journey as a patient advocate and caregiver for my father. This is Part 2 of a sho...

Many of us who are faculty who are in our 40s and 50s are part of what is called the “sandwich” generation. This means that some of us are providing care for both our aging parents as well as children while also trying to advance on the tenure track. In this 33rd episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I'll be discussing caring for aging parents when you're also a faculty member. This...

In this 32nd episode, I share some information with you about my journey into coaching and Rise with Clarity , which is a coaching and consulting business for women of color faculty in higher education. Although I’ve talked a bit here and there on the podcast about the business, I haven’t devoted a lot of time to how I came into this work and what my current offerings are.  So, consider this episo...

In this encore broadcast, I discuss the important tenure self-statement document. Find the full written transcript at RisewithClarity.com/6 or RisewithClarity.com/31 , along with other helpful resources for WOC faculty. For those of you who are junior faculty currently on the tenure track, have you given some thought to the personal statement that is required as part of your tenure portfolio?  If...

In this 30th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I’d like to talk about assessing your bandwidth in these trying times. This can be a helpful tool for those of you who still need to show up and manage the remainder of the academic semester.  This episode builds on some of the things discussed in Episode 7: Reassess Your Priorities at the End of the Semester . You can find the full transcript...

Given the ubiquity of recommendation letters in graduate school admissions processes, fellowship applications, job searches, and promotion cases—particularly in North America, it’s pretty wild that there isn’t more attention paid to this genre of writing.  Why is it that faculty receive such little training on how to craft letters of recommendation? Especially when these letters can have a critica...

It’s now been a little over one year since I’ve left my tenured faculty position and launched Rise with Clarity, my coaching and consulting business for women of color faculty. In this 28th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I wanted to offer some of my reflections on having left academia, one year out. Find the full transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/28 , along with other u...

As you probably already know, grant writing usually involves a significant investment of time and labor. And after a long period of waiting to hear from the funding agency, this process may or may not yield a positive result for you. But one thing is for sure. If you don’t apply for the grant, you will certainly NOT receive it. In this 27th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast , I’m going to b...

For many of you, you’ve likely made it through your first week or two of classes and you’re slowly starting to get back into the rhythm of teaching, research, and writing. But if this is your very first time on the tenure track, all of these new experiences can feel quite overwhelming and sometimes disconcerting. And because you have 6 years to achieve tenure at your institution, the stakes feel h...

This episode reflects on the narrow set of expectations that are often cast upon academics in higher ed. In North American institutions of higher ed, there are prescribed milestones set up for us, like landing a tenure track position and achieving tenure. In this 25th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast , I talk about the importance of being able to name and honor your personal milestones as...

Is this fall going to be your first semester teaching as a professor on the tenure track? If so, congratulations on your new position and this big transition to the professoriate. Conceptualizing and developing a course syllabus may be a first-time experience for you. And it may seem daunting. You might feel compelled to devote the entire summer to crafting your syllabi. In this 24th episode of th...

For today’s episode, I want to open up a discussion on some of the unique challenges that foreign-born faculty, in particular women faculty, face in universities and colleges in the United States.  I come from a place of seeing and knowing former classmates, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who have gone through different hurdles than what I have experienced as an Asian American who was rais...

Are you in a toxic higher ed work environment? Should you stay or should you leave?  There’s no easy answer to these questions…especially if you have invested a lot of time and energy in landing a tenure track position in today’s higher ed job market.  Deciding whether to stay or leave entails a lot of reflection, some soul searching, the weighing of pros and cons, and if you do end up leaving--pl...

It’s one thing to identify and acknowledge that you are in a toxic higher ed workplace, and another thing to figure out what you’re going to do about it.  What are your next steps? In this 21st episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast , I’m going to be offering  6 questions that you can ask yourself if you want to stay at your current institution. Find the full transcript for this episode as well...

How do you respond to your various deadlines and projects in higher education? In my case, I wasn’t very skilled at managing my deadlines at the beginning of my academic career. Over the years, I’ve had to learn how to cultivate time management skills, prioritize, and create systems to support my various projects.  Most importantly, I’ve become more aware of how I personally approach and handle de...

If someone were to ask you today about your core values, would you be able to articulate them out loud? Have you ever spent the time to think about your values, especially as they relate to your professional work? When I asked these questions to a former client of mine in our very first session, she was stumped. She was at a crossroads in her life, where she had essentially come to the decision to...

Are you currently in a toxic work environment in higher education? What are the telltale signs? Sometimes, you may not want to pay attention to certain red flags, even if you know deep down inside, things seem “off” in your department or institution. In this encore broadcast (and one of Rise with Clarity Podcast's most downloaded episodes last year), I will be addressing the topic of toxic wo...

Do you find yourself looking forward to the summer but you’re also concerned about having the bandwidth to get your research and writing done in the next 3-4 months? In this 17th Rise with Clarity Podcast episode, I’m going to share some observations on the necessity of rest and also offer some questions that will help you to reframe the relationship to your research. I hope that this reframing of...

Dr. Katherine Lee offers some brief reflections since she launched Rise with Clarity (her business and podcast) seven months ago. This is also an encore broadcast of the first and most downloaded episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast . The episode introduces host Dr. Katherine Lee; she explains what she learned on the tenure track as a woman of color professor. She also discusses why she decide...

Do you have your own stories to share of when you were mistaken for a graduate student or an undergraduate on campus? Or were you simply told that “you just don’t look like a professor.”  In this 15th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I’m going to try and unpack what it means when you are told that you don’t look the part of a professor as well as the professional implications for you. Thi...

Prior to starting your first job, how many of you were trained to lead an effective graduate seminar? Was your first experience with facilitating a graduate seminar during your first year on the tenure track? And do you remember how that went? In this episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I’ll be talking about some of the challenges with leading graduate seminars for your first time. And I wan...

In this episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I'll be discussing the topic of amplifying the academic achievements of women of color faculty. I'll reflect on how it can sometimes be very challenging for women of color faculty to promote their own achievements. Lastly, I’d like to leave you with some ideas on how to better have your wins amplified. Find the full transcript for this ep...

Do you have a teaching evaluation that is seared into your memory? Perhaps it was one that was mean-spirited and unsparing in its criticism. Or, it may have been directed towards you personally, and had absolutely nothing to do with your teaching. If you’ve been a professor for any amount of time, you have undoubtedly come across a teaching evaluation from a student that stung a little bit. It cou...

Have you ever seen the diagram that is entitled “The ‘Problem’ Woman of Colour in the Workplace?” It’s a simple one-page infographic that gets shared frequently on social media, and it’s also one that seems to have a lot of resonance in the current moment. For this eleventh episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I want to spend some time discussing this diagram as well as some of its implicatio...

As WOC faculty, you are very seasoned at creating syllabi and designing fantastic courses for your students. And you put in a lot of time and effort into this process. Now what if you were to use this format that you’re very familiar with to design a plan for your own personal growth and development in 2024?  This could be very useful if you’re currently feeling stuck in your life and you want to...